ELF. Introduction. Beaks, Feet and Feathers Mitchell Elementary February 19, 2016

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1 Suggested use of 2hr. Class Day: 15 min set up 15 min introduction 3 Centers, 20 min. each 35 min conclusion clean up & put away materials Introduction ELF Beaks, Feet and Feathers Mitchell Elementary February 19, 2016 Focus: Birds have exceptional adaptations that enable them to fly, keep warm, and procure food. Opening Questions: What special adaptations do birds have that help them survive? Great Opening Questions/Facts to Gain Interest: What kind of creature has eyes that take up nearly half its head? What animal uses its tail as a brake, rudder, stabilizer, and mate attracter? And who has the warmest, lightest weight body covering of all? BIRDS! There are 9,799 species of birds that have been discovered so far. There are more bird species than there are mammals, amphibian, or reptile species. Birds are remarkable creatures some are adapted to fly great distances (remember the Migration Unit); others are adapted to dive in the ocean, hunt from the air (remember the Hunter/Hunted Unit); or stay warm in extremely cold weather. The greatest challenge for all birds, however, is to find adequate food to give them energy for these and other demands. Specifically designed beaks, feet, legs, eyes, and wings help them to meet this challenge, and that is what we will be learning about in this session of ELF. Why is it so important for birds to have adaptations? If birds did not have specific adaptations, their survival would be reduced. Guam is the only island without birds on it. This is because of the introduction of brown snakes in WWII. Because there are no birds on Guam, the insect and spider populations have ballooned out of control. Birds are an important part of the ecosystem, and they need to be protected for that reason! You may want to touch on some of the following points during the opening segment: What makes a bird a bird? What do feathers do for a bird? (Lets it fly, stay warm, give color for camouflage or mate attraction, etc.) What do beaks do for a bird? (Help it get and eat food, preen, hatch eggs, attract mates, etc.) What are beaks made of? (Bony extension of skull covered with hard keratin the same substance that makes up human fingernails, hair, and animal horns). Do all birds have the same shape of beak? Why do they need different shaped beaks? Are beak shapes related to the food they eat? Any examples? (Each bird has a beak just right for the food it eats). What do birds use their feet for? (Walk, hop, run, perch, swim, catch/grip food, build nests, etc.) How are birds feet shaped differently? (Webs, claws, orientation of toes, number of toes, hallux, etc.) Birds also have many shapes and sizes of wings and tails to perform different functions (peacock vs. hawk). Is a bird a predator, a prey animal, or both? What do birds eat? Tie back to Hunter Hunted. Tie back to Skulls and Teeth Predatory birds have eyes that face forward; prey eyes are more to the sides. Do birds have teeth? (Beaks partly replace teeth; gizzards in many birds work to grind up food).

2 SLIDE SHOW WITH SCRIPT : VINS has produced a slide show with a script to follow which is on a CD located in the introduction bin. Please coordinate with your teacher AHEAD OF TIME to find out the best delivery for the CD in their classroom such as the use of a Smart Board with the teacher s laptop CD player, a classroom mounted TV with DVD player, or checking out the TV/DVD combo cart from the library. Please note that there are two scripts for the slide show, one for Kindergarten 2 nd Grade and one for 3 rd 4 th grade. Pet Bird? If someone in your class has a pet bird; it would be a great visual enhancement for this unit. Please check with your teacher before bringing a live bird to class. Puppet Show This puppet show reviews special adaptations that help various birds find and eat their special kinds of food. There are 5 characters, but the show can be performed by as few as 2 3 puppeteers. After the show, hold up the puppets and review how their different adaptations allow various birds to live side by side. Since different types of birds seek separate foods, they all can live compatibly in the same environment. You could show additional pictures that illustrate the variety of bird beaks, feet and feathers. If the slide show runs long, save the puppet show for closing; or, do the puppet show in the intro and slide show for closing. ELF box 5 puppets Fake leaves Kestrel Photo (use w/ kestrel reference) Puppet Stage Small songbirds have somewhere between 3,500 and 5,000 feathers; where water birds may have as many as 25,000 feathers. Penguins have more than 80 feathers per square inch, more than any other bird!

3 Center 1: Focus on Feathers and Feet (This center easily can be separated into two: one on feathers; the other on feet) Objectives: To examine the structures and uses of birds feathers and feet. General Background for Volunteers: The materials in the ELF Center 1 Box include items on loan from the Denver Museum of Nature and Science valued at $2,000. Adult volunteers are responsible for the care of these items, including the study skins where the insides of the birds have been removed and preserved for study by scientists. It may be somewhat vivid for the students to observe these sample birds as they are so lifelike. Adults should handle one specimen at a time of your choice (there will NOT be enough time for all of the specimens), having the students use a two finger touch and/or hand lenses. DO NOT allow the students to hold the study skins on their own only use a hand lens for basic observation of feather types and characteristics. When packing up these items, please be sure to put heavy items at the bottom wrapped in bubble wrap, and lighter items near the top. Items on Loan from the Denver Museum of Nature and Science: Feather Types Framed Case no item number Bird Feet Adaptations PB 1282 Ostrich Foot PB 2959 Ostrich Feathers PB 0972 Great Horned Owl Wing No item number, white box Mallard Wing E 386 Sage Grouse PB 0324 Pheasant Feathers Ring Necked Pheasant PB 0662 Western Screech Owl PB 0260 Red Tailed Hawk Leg/Foot PB 1493 American Kestrel E713 Sharp Shinned Hawk PB 0310 Redheaded Woodpecker PB 5437 American Robin PB 4603 Red Winged Black Bird PB 0527 Feathers: See DMNS Framed Case with Feather Types (may be stored near the bottom of the box) time frame 12 minutes max for 20 minute centers. There are of four different kinds of feathers: flight, contour, down, and plume Flight feathers : These are feathers of the wing and tail which have strong hollow shafts running the entire length with flat webs on two opposite sides, presenting a lightweight, yet solid, surface for flight. Contour feathers : These are the smooth body feathers that streamline the bird and also carry the colors and patterns distinctive of a species. Down feathers : These feathers have very short shafts with many noninterlocking barbules to create dead air spaces for good insulation. ELF Center 1 Bin (Feathers Section) Hand lenses Goose Flight Feathers for Zip Demo The Structure of Feathers Handou t Body, Down, and Tail Feathers Handout Wing Feathers Handout DMNS Bird/Feather Samples and Study Skins ( Feet Section) DMNS Bird Feet Adaptation Board DMNS Study Skin Samples Feet and Tracks handout Books Feathers: Not just for Flying by M. Stuart Feathers (chapter 1)by D. Patent

4 Plume feathers: These are typically large, ornamental feathers with a long quill and shortened barbs. These are adapted for the role of attracting a mate. (Also see DMNS Ostrich feather sample). View Various DMNS Samples and share this information: Birds are the only animals that have feathers. Encourage students to examine the feathers with hand lenses. What do they see? Make sure they notice the hollow shaft. How does that help the bird? (makes them more lightweight) What are feathers made of? (Keratin the same substance that forms bird beaks, human hair, fingernails, and exoskeletons of crustaceans and insects). What is different about each kind of feather? How are they similar? What purposes might the different types of feathers serve? Compare DMNS to handouts. More In Depth Look at Flight Feathers: When looking at flight feathers, ask the students how the feathers fit together? (Tiny hooks, or barbules, on the barbs the parallel strands that attach on either side of the shaft and create the feathers flat surface) lock together like Velcro so a bird can zip its flight feathers into a smooth, aerodynamic, surface see handout diagram: A Flight Feather. Let the students gently pull apart the web of one of the provided goose flight feathers (Approx. 5 purchased for each class, or one per rotation). Use the hand lens to see the barbules that project from the barbs. Let the children try to zip the feather back together by pinching and drawing their fingers along the separated barbs from the shaft to the outer edge. Discuss how and why birds oil and groom (preen) themselves. (When birds preen, they are zipping up their feathers, keeping them in good order for flight. They nibble along each feather, removing dirt and tiny insects pests. A gland above the base of their tail contains oil that the bird spreads on the feathers. Waterfowl especially use a great deal of oil on their feathers.) Why do vultures have bald heads? (After they eat bloody carrion, they couldn t clean feathers on their own heads also, the ring of fuzzy neck feathers acts as a bib to keep blood from dripping down onto wings.). Feet: (Approx. 8 minutes of a 20 minute center rotation) Ask the students to describe how birds use their feet in different ways (walking, perching, swimming, running, climbing, nest building, holding down food, grabbing.) Then talk about some of the different kinds of feet on various birds. DMNS has an excellent board at the bottom of the bin with all of the adaptations of bird feet. You may also bring out more items from DMNS collection including an ostrich foot! Climbers: They have two toes in front and two toes in back for climbing up and down tree trunks. (Example: woodpeckers) Graspers: These birds have large curved claws, called talons that dig into prey and help hold them onto it in flight. (Example: hawks, owls, other birds of prey) Perchers: These birds have three toes that face forward and one long hind toe that helps them grip their perches tightly. (Example: robins, mourning doves) Runners: These birds have two or three twos and all the toes point forward for fast running. (Example: ostrich and killdeer) Scratchers: These birds have rake like toes for scratching in the soil (example: pheasants, chickens, and other chicken like birds) Swimmers: These birds use their feet as paddles (example: ducks) ***Plan your time in order to fit as much as you can in this center, or break it into two centers.

5 Center 2: Mix and Match Objective: To explore how a bird s beak and feet are designed to work together to help it eat and survive. This is a large tabletop or floor center. Using the Did You Ever Wonder... card and the white "Bird Adaptations" cards, introduce students to the different shapes and functions of bird beaks and feet. As you are discussing the beaks and feet, ask students to describe the shapes they see and encourage them to be very descriptive with their words. Example: Add to the description: "the beak is pointy", and say "the beak is spear like and could be used to stab food". Next, give each student one bird card. Ask each student to describe their bird with the following information: The shape of my bird's beak is. The shape of my bird's feet is. Based on its beak, feet and feather adaptations ask students how they think their bird might use those adaptations to get and eat its food. For younger grades (K 1), you may want to pick one or two cards and do this exercise as a group. Bird Sort: Lay out the blue beak shape signs on the table or ground. Make sure there is plenty of space around each card. Give each student 5 10 bird cards. (Determine the number of cards you give each student by how many students there are in the group and how long you want this part of the center to last.) Ask students to carefully examine each bird's beak. Then, have students place each of their bird cards in front of the sign that describes the shape and type of beak each bird has. When all the cards are laid out, discuss the results and discuss what the different birds might eat based on the shape of their beak. If some bird cards are placed under the incorrect shape, discuss what shape might describe that bird's beak better. Repeat this activity for the bird feet using the green feet shape signs. Discuss how a bird's feet play a role in what the bird eats too. Also point out that if a bird has a certain beak shape, it will most likely have a corresponding foot shape. For example, birds of prey such as owls, eagles and hawks have shredder beaks and grasping feet. This can help to illustrate how the beak and feet work together. To further illustrate how a bird's beak and feet work together to help it eat and survive, lay out the photos of bird foods. Ask each student to choose one bird card and place it next to a food it would eat based on its beak and feet shape. More than one bird may eat the same kind of food, and one kind of bird may eat several different kinds of food. Work through these combinations with the students. Talk about the special features of each bird s beak, feet, etc. to help it get its particular food. For example, a woodpecker uses its stiff tail feathers to anchor itself to a tree while pecking for insects. Try to point out incongruities between a bird s adaptations and foods not in its diet ( Could a Canada Goose catch a rodent? Why not? ). Ask students to compare and contrast their bird/food match with those of other students. Relate the bird adaptations back to the teeth/skulls unit (birds beaks and feet, in part, take the place of teeth) and to the predator/prey unit (what sort of beaks/feet do herbivore birds have? What sort do carnivores (birds of prey) have?). Also, talk about gizzards as a bird adaptation that partly replaces teeth. (The gizzard grinds up foods, often with the help of stones that the bird swallows.) Note also adaptations like eye placement (front facing eyes (binocular vision) for birds of prey) and camouflage coloring to help a bird hide from predators. ELF Center 2 Bin Memory Card Game with 51 bird cards ** Please make sure all 51 cards are there at the start and end of each ELF. Did You Ever Wonder... read aloud card Bird Adaptations Identification Cards Beaks on one side and Feet on the other Reference Charts for Beaks, Feet, and Food Blue Beak Shape Signs Green Beak Shape Signs You Can Tell What They Eat By Their Bills and Their Feet Books Eyewitness Jr. Amazing Birds by A.Parsons, Simon & Schuster Children s Guide to Birds, by J. Johnson DK Eye Wonder Bird **There re keys to help identify beak and feet shapes and food that the birds eat If you have extra time, you can work through the handout labeled You Can Tell What They Eat By Their Bills and Their Feet".

6 Center 3: Fill the Bill Objective: To learn about beak adaptations by comparing how well different shaped utensils work to pick up different foods. This center involves some planning and volunteer supplied materials. You will need an assortment of bird foods in different containers. Set up 4 to 8 stations at a large table on the plastic tablecloth (or bring a large towel). Consider using an ELF sheet for the floor. Each station represents a different food that some birds might eat. The following list comes from the Fill the Bill activity page, distributed to coordinators. The station represents the food, as indicated, with bird and beak tool identified in parentheses: A. Water in a tall, thin bottle = nectar in a flower (hummingbirds eyedropper) B. Bowl w/ gummies buried in cornmeal = worms in the ground (snipes chopsticks) C. Nuts & sunflower seeds on a plate = hard covered seeds (grosbeaks pliers) D. Floating styro pieces = aquatic animals (spoonbills slotted spoon, scoop) E. Puffed rice in water = tiny aquatic plants (flamingoes, some ducks strainer, net) F. Toss popcorn or mini marshmallows in air = flying insects (whip poor wills, net) G. Rice or raw pasta on a log = insects (warblers, tweezers) H. Cherries hanging on string = fruit on a branch (toucans, tongs) Feel free to use your own ideas (and share with other ELF teams via ). Cooked spaghetti in a cup might be earthworms. Grapes floating in water can be fish. Jelly beans under shredded paper could be burrowed beetles. Please consult your teacher and consider nut and other allergies as you design this center for your classroom. Give each student a different utensil and tell them that this is their beak. Supplement the utensils for more variety (toothpicks, clothespins, etc.). Ask students to predict which foods they will be able to pick up most easily with their beak. Then, let students try to pick up the foods at each station using their beaks. Which foods were easiest to pick up with which beak? Hardest? Why? Allow them to try various utensils. With older students, you may want to follow the Fill the Bill activity more closely and use the Fill the Bill Copycat chart to record and/or graph results with your group. This method will be more structured, take longer and may require a few more utensils. Otherwise, just let the kids experiment with the different beaks and stations. After students have tested several beak/food combinations, relate the utensils to different types of real bird beaks, using the Copycat page, Bird Adaptations Beaks page and the books Beaks, Unbeatable Beaks and Birds & How They Live (pgs36 37). Ask the students why birds don t all have the same beak type. How do different beaks help birds survive? Can more types of birds live in an environment if they eat different foods? (Yes, they fill different niches.) Ask how a specialized beak might help and hurt a bird. With a specialized beak, a bird often can eat a particular sort of food that no other birds eat; but, if its special food becomes unavailable, it might starve because it can t eat any other sort of food. A bird with a generalized beak, like a crow, is more versatile and can modify its diet more easily. ELF Center 3 Bin: Fill the Bill activity page Copycat Fill the Bill activity page Bird Adaptation Beaks laminated page Bird Chow Match up Station signs Plastic bowls Aquariums Plastic bottles Paper plates Utensils: tongs, eye droppers, slotted spoon, strainer, fish net, pliers,chopstick s Plastic tablecloth Sheet for floor Volunteers Foods in various containers (e.g., gummy worms, oatmeal, puffed rice, sunflower seeds, popcorn, mini marshmallows, cherries, etc.) Towel / paper towels Book Box Beaks by S. Collard Unbeatable Beaks by S. Swinburn

7 Center 4: Bird Search (outside) OR Make a Bird (inside) Alternative 1 (outside) Bird Search Bird Search Objective: To look for birds outdoors and to notice their special adaptations. If the weather permits, take the students on a walk outside to look for birds. Volunteers could provide binoculars, if desired. At your option, use the Bird Search Card and/or the Rocky Mountain Birds identification pamphlet to help guide your search. Older students can each fill out a "Bird Search Card" with a dry erase marker. For younger students, ask them to search for the items on the Bird Search Card and ask them to describe what they see. You may want to look around for many birds, or focus observations on just one bird. Here are the items on the Bird Search Card, which helps students focus to make observations. Observe the birds seen outdoors, and for each bird, record the following, if you can: The size of the bird. Is it bigger or smaller than a robin? A chicken? The color and pattern of its feathers. The shape of its wings and tail, and its way of flying The shape of its beak. Is it doing anything with its beak? What? The size and shape of its feet. Does it use its feet when eating? Can you identify the bird by name? Wrap up this observation activity by reviewing and discussing the birds you saw. Try to focus the discussion specifically on the different adaptations you observed for each bird. Alternative 2 (inside) Make a Bird Make a Bird Objective: To design a real or imaginary bird that has adapted its feet and beak for a particular way of survival. If the weather is inclement, or you choose not to go outside for other reasons, you can choose this creative arts center, in which students put together bird parts that correspond with adaptations described on a card you pass out to each of them. Depending on how you structure this center, students may need more or less help from the adult volunteers. Each student a "Bird Adaptation Card", containing one of the following adaptation combinations: ELF Center 4 Bin Laminated Bird Search Cards (6) Rocky Mountain Bird identification pamphlets Laminated Bird Adaptation Cards" Bird Adaptation Beaks and Feet Cards Build A Bird Kit copies Sample Build A Bird Crafts Clipboards Dry Erase Markers Color Pencils Construction Paper Glue Scissors Envelope for extra bird parts Volunteers Binoculars (optional) Extra Craft supplies (optional) Books Birds of North America, West Kittinger Birds: a guide to familiar birds of North America Zim You paddle around in water with your feet, and catch fish with your beak. You fly after your food and must be able to change directions quickly, and you catch flying insects in the air with your beak. You hammer holes in trees with your beak, and you use your stiff tail to help support you on tree trunks. You eat bugs under bark with your beak, and you climb up and down trees with your feet.

8 You can spot a mouse a half mile away, and you spend a lot of time soaring in the sky. You can see very well in the dark, and you catch live mice with your feet. You catch frogs with your beak, and hunt while wading in deep water. You crack seeds with your beak, and you attract a mate with your beautiful tail. You sip nectar from flowers with your beak, and you have brilliant feathers so other birds can see you. Students can use different bird parts from the Build A Bird Kit copies or their own creativity and imagination to create their bird according to the description on the Bird Adaptation Card. After they have cut out and glued the parts of their bird together, they can color it and add details. Have students write which adaptation their bird is illustrating on the back of the construction paper. Students can describe their bird and its adaptations to the group. They should also write their name on the back and then they can either put in their Friday Folder file or take it home. **It might be very helpful to cut out several bird parts and body forms ahead of time. This could be helpful for all grades. If you have extra bird parts, please put them in the bird parts envelope.

9 We have made this a very exciting conclusion. Divide students into groups depending on the number of volunteers you have. And then set them all up to dissect the owl pellets at the same time. One parent volunteer should be around to assist 5 7 students. Use the teacher if you have to. [Please note the gray box at the beginning of the outline for suggested use of 2 hour class day ] You could have as much as 35 minutes for dissection if this proves to be too long you could use the puppet show or slide show as well. CONCLUSION!! aka Center 5: Owl Pellets Objective: To discover what owls eat by examining the contents of owl pellets. To learn how owls eat and digest their food. If possible, please ask the parent volunteer to read some background information on Owls, which is included in the ELF File box. This information includes interesting facts on owl behaviors and adaptations that could be communicated to the students before they dissect the pellets. Kindergarten leaders may want to do some of the dissecting, depending on the group. The leader could pull the pellet into parts and then have students dissect the parts. If you have unused pellets after your ELF session, please return them to the ELF shelf. Before distributing the owl pellets, explain to the students that owls swallow their prey whole. Much of what they consume (fur, bones, teeth, feathers) cannot be digested. About 12 hours after a meal, an owl regurgitates, or spits up a pellet containing the undigested materials. Owls produce one or two pellets every 24 hours. The diet of an owl can be determined by studying the contents of the pellets. Explain to the students that they will dissect a pellet to learn its contents. Pellets are likely to contain small mammal bones. If one student group gets a pellet that does not contain as many bones as a neighbor s pellet, that is just part of the scientific process. Give each student one pellet on a paper plate. If any student chooses not to participate, that is fine. ELF Center 5 Bin: Owl Pellets Charts of rodent skeletons Owl dissection worksheet (6) Laminated Animal Fact Files: pp on owl pellets VINS Owls Adaptation background and articles Paper plates Hand lenses Tweezers Toothpicks Zip lock bags Latex gloves Purell Tape Construction Paper Have the students look at the pellets INTACT and compare them with each other. What indigestible parts might they contain? Then, let students slowly pull their pellets apart, using toothpicks and tweezers. Have them separate the contents into piles of bones, teeth and fur. Older students can sort the bones into different types of bones, referring to the bone chart. Can they identify any of the bones (ribs, vertebrae, etc.)? When everyone is finished, they can compare the contents of the different pellets with the other students at their table. What kind of animal(s) did the owl eat? Do the bones represent a whole animal? Older students can complete the Owl Pellet Dissection Worksheet. Students may keep the contents of the pellets in a labeled plastic bag after they tape it to a sheet of construction paper. Although these pellets have been sterilized, please have the students wash their hands well after this activity. Remind students not to put their hands to their mouths while they are working. Purell is provided in the ELF file box to sterilize their hands. Volunteers Other instruments to dissect pellets (optional) Classroom Sharpie (to label baggies)

10 Wrap up Options Slide show, if not used in the opening segment. Puppet show, if not used in the opening segment. ELF Intro/Concl. Bin Books Slide CD/script Puppet stage Books in ELF Book Box See Unit Bibliography Materials For your classroom session you will need: 1. One ELF intro/concl bin 2. One Center 1 bin (may be another bin w/ specimens from DMNS) 3. One Center 2 bin 4. One Center 3 bin 5. One Center 4 bin 6. One Center 5 bin (likely being used as conclusion) 7. Puppet Theatre